The present invention relates to a system for processing parcel shipping. This system may be used for processing the shipping of parcels from different senders that are to be conveyed to different recipients by different carriers which may be public or private.
French patent No. 88 03277 filed Mar. 14, 1988 describes a system for processing parcel shipping enabling shipments received from various shippers to be conveyed to their respective recipients via various carriers on the basis of data defining a recipient and a carrier for each shipment, together with a specific one of that carrier's services which is to be used, the system being characterized in that it comprises:
first memories constituting, firstly a carrier file containing characteristics specific to the carriers usable by the system and relating to individual identification of the carriers themselves and to identification of the various services offered by each of them, together with the types of documents required for accompanying each shipment for each service, and secondly a sender file containing characteristics specific to the senders using the system and relating to individual identification of the senders themselves, and to identification of the carriers that each of the senders may use and the service of said carriers to which they have access;
a second memory constituting a shipment file;
input means for inputting data relating to each shipment;
print means for outputting documents; and
a programmed control unit coupled to said files, to said input means and to said print means, and including shipment preprocessing means for inputting data and for verifying the input data from the carrier and sender files, shipment processing means attributing an individual reference to each shipment which, together with the data as input and verified defines the characteristics of the corresponding shipment, referred to as a "processed" shipment, and storing the characteristics of each processed shipment in a shipment record in the shipment file, and document printing control means for generating the documents identified in the carrier file on the basis of the shipment record in the shipment file corresponding to each shipment.
The system includes scales coupled to the programmed unit.
The print means include a postage meter and printers for printing documents other than payment stickers.
The first memories also include a destination country file containing characteristics specific to said countries and relating to their identification both with respect to tariff and with respect to the documents specific to services for said countries.
Such a system is an association or grouping of carriers to which users apply for shipping or receiving parcels.
Such a system requires frequent updating because of the changes that occur in the parameters used, and in particular: changes in postal tariffs; changes in the documents that accompany parcels; etc.
This updating is performed by the constructor of the system, and is an operation that requires investment because of the need to perform constant monitoring of the regulations and tariffs in force, the need to interpret them, and to materialize them in the form of updating floppy disks which are used in the system. A first object of the invention is to prevent a user of the system with a plurality of systems in operation being tempted to acquire a single updating floppy disk and to reproduce the updating floppy disk for use by other systems.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system capable of making use of any controlling programmed platform (e.g. a commercial PC) in association with any postage meter.